Author: Dan

Weekly Gaming: Pneuma: Breath of Life (Xbox One)

I’m not going to lie; I only happened across Pneuma: Breath of Life because I was worried I wouldn’t finish a game this week and needed a quick and easy game to complete. Checking through game times on HowLongToBeat.com whilst also using my xbox One, I finally happened across Pneuma, and being as I needed to complete a game desperately, I decided to give it a go.

The first thing that grabbed my attention (for the worst may I add) was the annoying voiceover that seemed, if anything, detrimental to the game and experience I was having as a whole. I understood why it was there (to give a familiar voice and person to attach to whilst exploring a desolate world), but otherwise, his voice was annoying and his questions were far too philosophical for my liking.

Move past the annoying voice in your head and you soon experience a breath-taking visual affair with the game. Tiles reflect realistically as you make your way around what appears to be an old museum (which has manifested before your very eyes), with every detail, from the wooden bookcases to the golden arches all being stunningly rendered in real-time. I find it insane that a small indie studio made this game, as it genuinely looks like something a AAA studio would create with thousands of pounds and hundreds of artists.

Beyond all that beauty, there is a game to behold, with puzzles being thrown at you with every new room you enter. Whilst some of the puzzles centre around pulling levers to move objects in the world, the vast majority of them involve observation; where you must observe certain objects in the world in order to progress. For example; one room may contain bridge that isn’t in the correct location. Should you look at it and move left, it’ll move left with you, but only when you focus on it.

It’s also through this observation mechanic that the game narrates itself, saying that if one can perceive themselves and only themselves, are they truly alive, or a figment of ones imagination? It’s questions like this that constantly get asked throughout the entire games 2 hour play length, and whilst none of the questions are ever answered, they still leave a good imprint on you once finished.

A fantastic example the questions leaving an imprint was just towards the end of the game, when the narrator you’re controlling finally realises he’s being controlled by you and that he isn’t in control of his own destiny. In this instance, the narrator starts trying to “tug” away from your onward journey towards the games end; a fantastic scene that truly broke the fourth wall and made me partially believe I really was controlling someone against their will.

For all my talk of how annoying the voiceover was in the first half of Pneuma, I genuinely started liking him towards the end. Partially probably because he started talking less often, but also because he stopped being so quirky, stupid, and random and actually started sounding like a proper human being.

The same progression of character cannot be said for the puzzles themselves throughout Pneuma. Whilst they start off difficult in the early sections due to the new mechanic of observing eyes throughout the environment, they soon start becoming repetitive and easy later on, to the point that every new puzzle you come across you merely know to look at it in a new way and it’ll fix itself eventually. It’s a shame the puzzle elements fizzled out, but I suppose you can’t expect the developers to have perfect puzzles throughout with the same limited pallet of puzzle pieces.

Considering the game was only 2 hours long and was fairly enjoyable, I found myself surprised I hadn’t played Pneuma earlier. The game was free on Xbox Live Games with Gold a while back, and whilst I only played it because I was in a hurry and knew it was fast to complete, I still came back to it after seeing the credits, just to make sure I found everything Pneuma had to offer. Should you have Pneuma in your library, I’d hugely recommend investing those few hours into it; you’ll be left impressed, and at the minimum, would have at least enjoyed what you saw.

4/5

p.s. I apologise, but this week I was going to do a video review of Pneuma as well. Unfortunately, my video capture card decided to only capture the second half of my play through, so I don’t have enough footage.

05/02/2016
Weekly Gaming: That Dragon, Cancer (PC)

Hi all,

So for this week I managed to finally play the game I backed over a year ago on Kickstarter: That Dragon, Cancer. It was a fantastic experience, one I’m glad I played, and whilst I wouldn’t necessarily call it a game, it still was worth playing and experiencing.

You can read my full impressions below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/262877/that-dragon-cancer-pc/

Also, I made a video review of this game too! You can find it below:

Hope you’re all well, and thank you for visiting!

-Dan

29/01/2016
Weekly Gaming: Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)

Weirdly enough, in all my years of owning Nintendo consoles; from the very first 3DS that I saved up my own money to buy at the age of 13, to the Gamecube I bought a few years later, I’ve never owned or played a Paper Mario game. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always admired them from a distance; their fantastically stunning presentation always had me attracted to them, and from what I always heard, their RPG mechanics also tempted me time and time again. Alas, years later and at the grand old age of 28, I decided to pop my Paper Mario cherry. Suffice to say, I’m glad I did.

There’s more to the game then just the visuals; Paper Mario Sticker Stars takes place in a book/land where the world is not only made of paper, but knows about stickers and their incredible abilities they hold. Once a year a sticker comet comes down to the land during the sticker festival, for all to marvel at how much power it holds. Unfortunately, with Bowser being Bowser, he decides to try and steal the Comet Stickers power, and thus begins Mario’s adventure through this gorgeous and crazy world.

The sticker/paper motive is really taken to the extremes throughout the course of Paper Mario Sticker Star, both to it’s advantage visually, but also to it’s deterrent mechanically.

From a visual standpoint the sticker/paper combo really helps to bring a visually stunning world to life, with every character fitting nicely into two dimensions. Mario for example can be crumpled up like a piece of paper, and due to all the characters two dimensions, see them on their side and they’re basically invisible. Stickers are commonly found throughout the world; on walls or under bushes, it’s fantastic peeling them off whenever you find them to see them fall with grace like a piece of paper in the wind. It’s all a wonder to behold, and truly is a stunning feat for nintendo to achieve; Paper Mario Sticker Star is one of the most visually pleasing games I’ve played in a long time.

Whilst the stickers and world are really a delight to be seen in action, the mechanics of them are not great. Battles take place with enemies like a traditional turn-based RPG, meaning you’ll select an attack and proceed to block oncoming offences. The problem is, the stickers you find throughout the world (and can buy) are the very stickers you need in order to attack and defend against enemies. It’s a cool idea in theory, but left me stuck many-a-time when I didn’t have the correct sticker to take on a specific enemy; an annoyance no gamer wants to come across after putting hours into a game.

Another problem with the stickers is the very core of the gameplay loop; there’s no XP for gain in Paper Mario Sticker Stars, meaning your progression through the game is on the stickers alone. Nintendo have done good to provide stronger and stronger stickers as your proceed through the story, but in focusing the whole game around this stickers, it never felt like I was progressing. Typically in RPG’s I enjoy fighting as many enemies as possible at the stat of the game so I can become strong enough to kill hard enemies with relative ease, helping me to feel empowered in an otherwise atypical game. The problem with a system like Paper Mario Stick Star is that in giving you no reason to fight enemies for a gain at the end of the combat, and instead giving you a net loss of losing your hard earned stickers from damaging goomba’s, you’re under no incentive to actually fight any enemies at all unless absolutely necessary (e.g. They’re blocking an exit). I spent the first few hours fighting everything I came across until I made that realisation; I wasn’t gaining anything at all, so what was the point?

It’s just a shame about the combat system, as I actually really enjoyed the fighting. Timing jumps is always enjoyable and keeps a user engaged with turn-based RPG’s, and the ability to block against enemy attacks is always a bonus and incentive for keeping you engaged with the game at all times. I still had fun with the game overall, but as said previously, I genuinely let like there were no progression. I just went on a linear path the developers wanted me to go on gaining stickers strong (or weak) enough for the current enemies.

Another annoyance about the sticker system is the ability to go into a fight with the wrong stickers in the first place. There are certain “things” that can be found around the world. These 3D household objects can be turned into rare and powerful stickers, that, during combat, can have huge effects on your foes. The problem is, some of the bosses in the game (and levels!) are absolutely essential on you having one of these stickers in your possession.

Case in point; I wasted dozens of minutes fighting a fish that would simply jump into the water and heal itself once you first damaged it. Not knowing what to do I would constantly try and hurt it, all to no avail. After getting so annoyed of getting the game over screen time and time again, I decided to check out a guide online. Turns out in one of the levels you can find a fish hook; this fish hook should be used only when the fish goes into the water, and that allows you to continue fighting him.

It’s genuine annoyances like the example above which really made the mechanics of Paper Mario grate on me after a while. If it wasn’t for the charming graphics and gorgeous presentation, I may not have made it to the end.

Whilst this article makes it sound like I’ve shitted on Paper Mario Sticker Stars more than sang it’s praises, I should say here that I genuinely still enjoyed the game from start to finish; but only in a presentation and story way. The mechanics let me down because they (in theory) should have complimented the art-style, but instead they detracted from the games’ mechanics as a whole. As I said at the start of the article, I’m glad I finally popped my Paper Mario Cherry, but man oh man was it a bittersweet time.

3/5

22/01/2016
Weekly Gaming: A Story About My Uncle (PC)

A Story About My Uncle managed to go under my radar for quite a while, having not really heard anything about the game both in reading games websites, and in talking to friends. Eventually, my brother showed me the game whilst I was visiting family one weekend, saying it looked fantastic, and shouting about how much it needs to be played. I bought it on steam, and ignored it for a good long while. Being the start of a new year I decided it was time to actually give the game a go and put it through its paces to see if it deserved as much hype my brother was lauding it with.

So to set up the premise of A Story About My Uncle, you play as a child looking for his estranged uncle, all the while this is being narrated to a little girl as a bedtime story. You start the game off in your uncles laboratory, and happen across a suit made just like your uncles, only smaller, as if it was made for you. Donning it and proceeding upstairs, you come across a “Garbage” pad, which, once activated, sends you to a new and wonderful place.

It’s at this point that the game starts proper, with the suit you have being capable of jumping extremely high, and grappling onto most objects in the environment. You use these abilities to jump from floating island to floating island in pursuit of more of the story. There’s no fall damage or permanent death in ASAMU, but the scarcity of islands to land on certainly makes for a challenging game none-the-less. Despite this simplicity, ASAMU really manages to stand out from the crowd, easily leaving a good impression on me over the course of its 3 hour campaign.

So apart from the jumping mechanic, what makes ASAMU such a good game? Well for one, the story that I spoke of earlier is actually quite enticing, with little snippets of dialogue explaining more of the world around you as and when appropriate being a compliment to an otherwise good plot. The ambition to find your uncle and see what more this world has to offer is as good a reason as any to progress through the story, and it helps that the gameplay really holds up when pushed to it’s limits towards the end of the game.

The puzzle mechanics of ASAMU are also commendable, with every level being huge in scale, it’s hard to know where to jump and which direction to go in order to make sure you land on the correct platform. Retrying certain jumps in different ways can help to progress, and helps in constantly teaching you new things about the physics in use in ASAMU. you get a real feeling the the more that you play and fail, the more you’re learning, which in turn helps you later on. The game didn’t feel at all boring during the short campaign, with each section amping the difficulty perfectly.

There are flaws in the game’s campaign – a section towards the end of the game in some caverns comes to mind – where the 3-grapple limit really starts to grind at your patience rather than actually being a good game mechanic set to challenge you. There are ways around this 3-grapple limit BUT at times they really don’t work as intended, meaning you’ll end up dying far too many times; a huge deterrent that almost got me to walk away from the game in its final moments.

Another flaw is the lack of progress on ideas that are brought in, but quickly discarded whilst on your voyage through the world. Half way through the campaign for example there’s an eye monster that you must avoid by not moving when it’s eye is open. This part of the campaign felt brilliant for what was possible in future encounters; maybe there’ll be one boss I’ll need to kill by jumping between spikes on a ceiling that fall? I thought to myself once this area was done. Unfortunately, nothing ever come of this encounter, with nothing like it appearing again. This isn’t necessarily a scathing brush against the developers; I enjoyed the eye monster encounter, I just wish there were more encounters like it.

Overall, I’m glad I finally got around to playing ASAMU. It’s a genuinely good platformer that has a great deal of replayability, especially in it’s time trial mode and in the amount of collectibles that are hidden throughout the campaign. Did it deserve the amount of hype my brother lauded it with? Maybe not, but its certainly a game that deserved way more attention than it initially received, a shame for such a solid game with a great core premise.

3/5

15/01/2016
Weekly Gaming: Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX (3DS)

Having recently purchased a NEW 3DS Xl, I decided I needed a few more digital games on the system to entertain me during my downtime between writing and programming, so jumped onto the Nintendo store to find what was on offer. Lo and behold, quite a lot actually, with Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX actually peeking my interest the most, I proceeded to download it ASAP and set about completing it.

Let me start by saying: Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX is not a simple game. The controls are simple, but my god is the game difficult. It’s a arcade shooting affair where your character stands at the back of the stage and shoots wherever you put your stylus on the bottom screen. Whilst it starts off easy, it soon becomes nigh on impossible when every enemy is shooting projectiles whilst being so far away that you can’t accurately hit them. To add to the challenge, you also only get 1 hit point per continue, with extra health coming randomly through destroying the scenery around the zombies themselves in the background. There’s also no save games, and after 5 continues, that’s it, you need to start the game from scratch. I’m surprised I finished the game to be honest, with a quick Google telling me that this is a remake that originally come out for the Wii, it doesn’t surprise me that they upped the difficulty to keep veterans entertained.

Don’t let the difficulty put you off the game though, with interesting themes and a multitude of different levels, I was kept entertained for a long while, and enjoyed the diversity of scenes on display. For a standard shooting zombie game, it’s strange to see such a variety of different levels and enemies to take on; from caterpillars in the world of Alice in wonderland, to the fantastic skeleton archers in the medieval period (where snow white is introduced), every enemy and asset looks lovingly created, despite only being on the screen for a few moments before you blow it up. This also goes for all of the characters you meet during the campaigns limited story-telling: each cutscene is cute and has it’s own take on familiar fairy tales that’s sure to delight, and left me smiling during some of the latter scenes in the game.

The enemies are easy to kill, but varied, and in such a large number that there are many times during the campaign that you may feel overwhelmed with how much is coming towards you. I died and had to start from scratch multiple times, a nuisance, but one that speaks volumes about the difficulty of the game. The vast majority of them will simply walk towards you, with a few shots to their head killing them on the spot, with others taking their place before long.

One nice addition which soon upped the ante and made the game more enjoyable once every few levels were the bosses, who were hugely details and had nice attack patterns that had to be learnt quickly (for fear of seeing the Game Over screen far too soon). Each boss took on the perspective look/visuals of the levels they proceeded, with my favourite easily being the queen of cards from Alice in Wonderland; her first attack patterns were easy, but before long she became something of a dominatrix, and proceeded to dance in her underwear whilst attacking me. It was hugely enjoyable, and certainly unexpected; a nice surprise at a time I died multiple times.

Along with the campaign mode there is a normal arcade mode, where no story happens, but you’re able to choose whichever character you unlocked during the main campaign. I found this mode enjoyable, but altogether not as entertaining as the main campaign where the characters and enemies really shine in their environments. Also, scores don’t really mean much when you can’t compare your scores on the games you play with your friends! (Nintendo really are behind in this regard – the sooner I can play games and compare my score against my friends within the game itself the better).

For the couple of quid I paid for the game in the Nintendo Store, Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX has certainly earned it’s money and time I’ve invested and then some. It may not be to everyones liking (nothing ever is), but the simple controls paired with the horribly difficult gameplay, and lush environments had me enjoying every minute I put into the game. There’s a few niggles in the games transition from a TV to a small screen (enemies in the distance are seriously impossible to hit), but overall these niggles don’t detract too much from how much pleasure I got from the rest of the game. Should you find Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX for sale again anytime soon, I’d hugely recommend getting it, you shouldn’t be disappointed.

3/5

08/01/2016
Weekly Gaming: Super Smash Bros for 3DS

I’ve always loved Super Smash Bros, ever since me and my brothers got it one christmas as children and played it non-stop, it’s always had a special place in my heart. The game took a while to get used to, but being a kid didn’t stop me and my siblings, as we soldiered on until we smashed the hell out of each other. It wasn’t until many years later, when Smash Bros Brawl came out on the gamecube that I realised how fond I was of the series, with myself playing it with friends and family during my teenage years, and easily into university with some of my best friends on their Wii. It’s a fantastic series, one that brings people together, no matter what their skill range may be. So with all this in mind, what do I think of Nintendo’s latest brawler? It’s bloody fantastic.

The character models on the 3DS version have a cel-shaded look with the reason being the small size of the 3DS’ screen. Despite this new style, Smash Bros still manages to look fantastic.

The first thing I done when I received the game was took it around my families house and proceeded to battle for hours on end. Having not played Smash Bros in years, I lost, time and time again, but this didn’t deter me, as I continuing honing my skill with bowser and dr mario and continued to smash people out of the stage. It’s one of the fantastic things about smash bros that hasn’t been lost with all these years: the games fun no matter what your skill level may be. Items on the stage help to even the playing field, with my youngest sister easily smashing us off the stage when a lucky hammer would come her way. Suffice to say, the multiplayer is just as fun as ever, and reason enough to get Super Smash Bros Brawl on either 3DS or Wii U.

So what of the single player? Well there’s plenty to do, with myself spending most of my time in the classic mode, where you must go from one stage to another fighting variations of characters as you go. The difference with Smash Bros for 3DS is the fact that you can choose your path, with some paths being harder than others but netting higher rewards. Next up is the Smash run: a mode where you run across a stage as fast as possible all whilst killing as many enemies to collect their stat bonuses. Once the timer is over, you then proceed to battle it out with CPU controlled enemies on a normal brawl level but with different abilities from the stats you collected. it’s a fun mode to play in short bursts, and one that certainly helps in unlocking all the characters available this time round.

Whilst there’s a great deal of characters on display here, most players will end up going back to their favourite before long.

Whilst on the subject of characters, how do the new additions hold up I hear you ask? Well for the most part, pretty well. The Villager from Animal crossing is overpowered to hell, but otherwise additions like Pacman and little mac are a standard affair of learning what abilities they have on the B button, and proceeding to master when to use said abilities. As much as I just dismissed little Mac, he’s actually got one of the best line up of moves compared to the whole roster. He’s fast and light, and whilst he can’t jump, he’s bloody powerful, making for a very worth opponent. Despite all these new additions though, I couldn’t help but fall back to tried and tested characters like Bowser and Doctor Mario; my favourite characters because one is fast and all around great (Dr Mario), with the other being just massively strong and an outright monster to budge.

For all of my positives about the game, I only have one glaring negative: Smash Bros for 3DS doesn’t innovate on the smash bros formula in any noticeable way. Don’t get me wrong, the game is extremely polished, to the point I don’t think I could find a sharp edge on it even if I tried, but in playing it safe, Nintendo also made the game boring for me far faster than it typically should. The rise of DLC characters has kept my interest peaking back here and there, but I can’t help but feel Nintendo played it far too safely, and could have come up with some new modes that really mixed the formula up in new and interesting ways.

Whilst the top screen is where all the action happens, it feels like Nintendo could have made better use of the bottom screen.

So should you own Super Smash Bros for 3DS (or Wii U)? Well, it depends how many friends you have or how much you like fighting. Playing with my family like good old times was great, but I got bored quickly when I wasn’t playing with others. If you’re a loner for most of the time like me, you may not find great value in the game, despite how great and polished it is. If your answer is that yes, you’re a social butterfly, then seriously, you cannot find a better party game than Smash Bros right now.

4/5

31/12/2015
Weekly Gaming: Mario Party: Island Tour (3DS)

I have fond memories of Mario Party; me and my family would play it loads as a child. I remember the painful blisters we would all get after stupid mini games forced us to out-do each other on the N64, and I also remember finding that an electric toothbrush was the best way to press A as fast as possible on the controllers. So with Nintendo doing a Nintendo Classics line on the 3DS, I thought, what better way to spend the last of the year then renewing this love for the game with my partner? Well, my presumptions were far from true, which was annoying considering I had mistakenly purchased two copies in the hopes we could play together.

Looks like a board game from yesteryear, but beneath it all Mario Party is just a race to the finish, and a frustrating one at that.

So first things first, why was I mistaken? Well Mario Party’s of yesteryear was a board game affair. Players would take turns rolling a dice, landing on special places, and playing mini-games to help them progress around the board. Whoever had the most stars at the end of the game won, with everything in the game helping you progress towards getting as many stars as possible. It was fun and addictive, down right competitive even.

Not so anymore with Mario Party Island tour. Whilst the “boards” still exist, they’re a one way street, with no repeating or challenge involved in collecting the most of something. This is a purely racing affair, with the player reaching the finish line first taking all, leaving everybody else in last place. whilst this may be to some peoples taste, it left a bad taste in my mouth when I was unlucky with my dice roles and ended up finishing a game at space 20 when everyone else was at space 50. It didn’t matter how well I played the mini-games (I won all of them), I still lost.

I’m not delusional; previous Mario Party games also had a lick of luck involved in winning a game, but at least there was skill involved too. You could nick players coins, preventing them from buying the game winning stars, or even outrightly turns the tables on someones fortunes should you win a mini game. Not so with Mario Party Island Tour, which has taken the most frustrating parts of any Mario Party formula and put them all into this one product.

Whilst I’m annoyed at the “board game” aspect of Mario Party, the mini games are just as addictive as always

Why was I annoyed I purchased the game twice? Well 3DS games usually contain download play; a way for up to 4 people to play one game with one cartridge. These titles usually also have the added benefit that should the other players own the same game, more options will be made available. Not so for Mario Party Island Tour, where doing download play allows you to access the full game. I sound annoyed, mainly because I waster money, but this is actually a fantastic addition to the game, and one Nintendo should advertise more.

So what good is there about the game? Well for one, the mini-games are just as addictive and fun as they always were. There’s a huge variety on display here, with them all taking advantage of the 3DS’ unique feature set, such as it’s gyroscope, touch screen, or even the microphone. In the 5 hours I’ve put into the game, I’ve rarely come across the same mini-games twice in a row, a brilliant play on Nintendo’s part calling to the amount of content available.

Along with the traditional “board” games, Nintendo has actually filled the game out plenty. You can choose to play the mini-games by themselves should you wish to practice and improve yourself, or play against the CPU on a hot air balloon mode where you must win as many mini games as possible. There’s also time trial mode, and another mode titled “Bowsers Tower”, which is more like the games actual campaign/story mode, with bosses and mini-games you wouldn’t find in the main game.

So for £13, Mario Party: Island tour is actually a bargain for the amount of content it squeezes in, it’s just a shame that the main thing that got me interested in the games in the first place (the board game) is gone, with it’s replacement being a mere shadow to the brilliantness that came before it. By all means buy Mario Party: Island Tour since it’s now on offer; it’s great fun with friends, and is cheap; just be prepared to get very annoyed very fast when the games decides to give you shit for no reason.

3/5

31/12/2015

2015 New Years Resolutions: The Conclusion

So, with half the year officially over and done, I wanted to take a look at my new years resolutions and see how far I’ve come towards accomplishing them so far. Without further ado, the list below will be crossed out or numbered depending on how close I am to completing it:

~~Get a new job~~ – Success!

Success! I managed to get a new job (Product Specialist & Project Coordinator) with a nice pay rise 🙂 Hard work certainly pays off eventually.

~~Put Twixel on iOS & Android~~ – Success!

It took a while, and still has a few bugs, but Twixel was ported to iOS and Android! It was hard; having to work out how to fix performance issues was certainly hard, but helped me in tidying up my code for future updates.

~~Read 12 books~~ – Success!

I’ll list them all now:

Halo: The Flood

The Science of Interstellar

Halo: First Strike

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx

Service Games: The rise and fall of SEGA

Halo: Contact Harvest

Halo: Saints Testimony

Look Who’s Back

Console Wars

Halo: The Cole Protocol

Embed with Video Games

WTF is Wrong with gchartideo Games

Next year I’ll read twice as much, as I’ve gotten the reading bug now!

~~Watch 52 new films I’ve never seen before~~ – Success!

The Interview

Life of Pi

Men in Black 3

Capote

A million ways to die in the west

The Campaign

Gravity

The Watch

Cars 2

Due Date

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

The Double

Parker

The Fifth Estate

The Hunger Games: Mockingly Part 1

Argo

Horrible Bosses 2

Porco Rosso

Big Hero 6

Seeking a Friend for the end of the world

American Sniper

Birdman

From up on Poppy Hill

The Imitation Game

X-men: Days of Future Past

Pompeii

Identity Thief

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Ruthless People

Divergent

Pitch Perfect

Book of Life

John Wick

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Wolf on wall Street

Grave of the Fireflies

Kung Fury

After Earth

Frank

Good Will Hunting

The Promotion

Jurassic World

Terms and Conditions May Apply

In the Loop

Whisper of the Heart

Chappie

Inside out

Antman

Paddington Bear

22 Jump Street

Before I go to sleep

The Theory of Everything

This was awesome, but a little too bloody easy to fulfil. I’ll need to do this in future, definitely next year, as it doesn’t take much to do at all. Everyone can bare to spend 2 hours a week watching a film they’ve never seen before.

~~Write 52 games reviews (Or could be worded: Complete 52 games)~~ – Success!

Forza Horizon 2

Battlefield 4

Kingdom Hearts 2

Ori and the Blind Forest

The Novelist

Hotline Miami 2

Race the Sun

Metal Gear Rising: revengence

The Unfinished Swan

Hektor

Life is Strange Episode 1

Game of Thrones Episode 1

Borderlands Episode 1

Peggle 2

Game of Thrones Episode 2

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Deer God

Olli Olli 2

Monument Valley DLC

Sunset

Game of Thrones Episode 3

Borderlands Episode 2

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare

Convoy

Life is Strange Episode 2

Metrico

Not a Hero

Life is Strange Episode 3

Project CARS

The Silent Age

Catherine

Tachyon Project

Game of Thrones Episode 4

Titan Souls

DMC

Dragonborn DLC

Beyond Eyes

Life is Strange Episode 4

Rare Replay

Everybody’s gone to the Rapture

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

Volume

Grow Home

Rocket League

Smash Bros for 3DS

Desert Golf

Super Toy Cars

Halo 5

Shadow Puppeteer

Life is Strange Episode 5

Mario Party: Island Tour

Poncho

Just as with the previous 3 years, I’ve managed to do it again! It was difficult this year considering how much other work I took on in my spare time, and the extra work load in my normal work day. But I will continue to do this, and document my journey as I manage to play through all my back catalogue and upcoming releases for Caesoose and VGChartz.com.

Make a second game for iOS + Android – Failed

Whilst I haven’t written about this game at all on twitter or here, I have been working on designing my second proper game. I don’t want to reveal too much just yet (I’ll write more in the following weeks), but the Design doc and background story is finished, with a very early prototype working on my phone already.

Write a novel – Failed

The cunning plan, to write the backstory for a game idea, never came to fruition. I may work on this next year, but I’m currently working on another game idea at the moment.

Do a Presentation at Event – Failed

I never managed to do a presentation this year. Weirdly, the second half of this year my mind hasn’t really been all here… I haven’t been as motivated as I have been in the past. Hopefully I’ll feel different once the new year comes round.

Attend 4 games conventions – Partial Success

Whilst I have only attended EGX Rezzed so far, I already have press passes to Develop in Brighton once again, and will be attending EGX in Birmingham this September. This only leaves one final event to attend, to which I’ll most probably attend one in Liverpool or Manchester towards the end of the year.

~~Attend E3~~ – Failed

This was more my own fault than anyone else’s. I managed to say to my team at VGChartz.com that I would like to attend the event, and proceeded to email the relevant team member with my details. Unfortunately, I never heard back from him, and so never chased it up. I should have pushed and asked more, but my thinking is that it’s not like I’m going to stop games writing anytime soon, so there’s always next year.

~~Visit Cardiff~~ – Success!

Managed to visit Cardiff after spending the weekend camping. My thinking was that I’ve been to (almost) every other UK city, yet had never visited Wales properly. Such a weird thing to technically still be in your country but see a completely different language everywhere.

~~Visit Dublin~~ – Success!

This was awesome! Dublin is gorgeous, and easily one of my favourite places (next to Edinburgh and Berlin).

Get a Second Tattoo – Failure

Whilst I have a few ideas, as with my last tattoo, I didn’t want to chose anything I wasn’t 100% sure on, so this is going to be postponed until next year.

I hope all of you managed to keep up with your New Years Resolutions! and here’s to a fantastic 2016!

Next week I’ll reveal next years resolutions, but in the meantime, have a fantastic new years eve party and get so wasted you forget about the things you missed out on!

-Dan

31/12/2015

Weekly Gaming: Super Toy Cars (Xbox One)

Please note that whilst I know the developers of Super Toys Cars (Eclipse Games) I will try my best to provide a review as unbiased as possible.

Super Toy Cars has been out for a long time, but with its recent release on the Xbox One, Eclipse Games sent me a review copy to have a bash at. Over the course of 6 hours I bumped and bashed my way through all 48 levels, getting 575 gamerscore in the process, so I’m pretty qualified to give my opinion on the game.

If you wanted an example of what Super Toy Cars resembles it’s Micro Machines grown up. You play as a tiny car racing against 7 other cars (of varying makes and models) and proceed to race around tracks that are made of all the small things a child would have access to (cereal boxes, sweets, games etc). There’s many modes to differentiate the gameplay, with an elimination round easily being my favourite (every 20 seconds whoever’s in last place is thrown out of the game). The graphics is fairly cool for a small team working across continents (seriously, they don’t work together and instead work over skype), and the music is repetitive, but awesome at times (cannot stop singing two of the songs to myself all the time). Whilst on paper that all sounds awesome and dandy, Super Toy Cars just can’t help but feel…. clunky.

Cars are varied, but clunky in the way they feel across tracks. At least there’s plenty of variety when it comes to the look of them.

It’s not a word I use very often to describe things, but clunky is exactly the word I’m going to use to perfectly summarise Eclipse Games’ Super Toy Cars. It has plenty of cars, and plenty of stages, but the whole thing comes across as unpolished. I found myself being driven insane far too often at clunky controls, clunky physics, and damn right annoying AI.

The drift mechanic for example is used in most games to encourage more skilled players to use it more often, helping them build up boosts to then beat a level faster. In Super Toy Cars it only serves to impede you, annoyingly slowing you down to the point it was never worth my time drifting around corners, and simply braking instead. Not great for a competitive game when the best way to win is to have the fastest car and to simply brake around corners.

Stages are nice in variety, but have weird collision glitches all over the place, with walls colliding strangely (sometimes you’ll just drive through cereal boxes and other times you’ll flip hundreds of times), and floors causing slow downs at random times. This doesn’t play nicely with the game’s automatic restart feature, which respawns your car should it detect you’ve collided pretty badly with the scenery or you’re driving the wrong way (being in first for a lot of the race then losing because you respawned whilst driving on a straight road is never a nice feeling).

For an indie game from a small studios, Super Toy Cars really does a good job of looking fantastic.

For all of it’s faults I did find that Super Toy Cars became a lot more enjoyable towards the end when I had the fastest car available, allowing me to bypass most bugs and “clunkiness” through sheer speed alone. Not a great way to explain how I eventually enjoyed a game, but a fitting sentence all the same. If only the rest of the game was like the final 2 hours…

So, for all its faults, should you own Super Toy Cars? If you fancy helping out an indie developer and having a semi-enjoyable few hours on the game (with awesome, quick achievements), then by all means pay the price for admission. If on the other hand you’re quick to anger and don’t like bugs in your games (who does), then it might be worth skipping Super Toy Cars for now. For a first game, Eclipse Studios should be happy with themselves, but that doesn’t stop Super Toy Cars from being Clunky with a capital C.

2/5

25/12/2015
GOTY 2015: My Favourite Games Played 2015

Hi all,

It’s that special time of year again, the time where we summarise what we liked (and what we didn’t) before our inevitable death. It that’s a bit too dark for you, sorry, but lets get on with my top 10 games!

(For those of you who don’t know, this list encompasses both new and old games, and is only a reflection on what I have personally played this year).

10. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Whilst I’ve played my fair share of action games in the past, Metal Gear Rising: Revengence really well and truly was a fantastic game that helped to reinvigorate my love of action games. It’s story was a little non-sensical, but at the end of the day, I’ve heard that of every Metal Gear game of the last few years.

9. Metrico

This stylish platformer changed my perspective on what a platformer game truly can be. Some of it’s brilliant puzzle ideas may actually find it’s way into my next game, due to their simplicity and brilliant attention to detail. To say it’s a must-play is an understatement, and I hope many more people get to play this fantastic platformer in the future with the games imminent release on PS4 sometime in 2016.

8. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

What started out as walking simulator soon turned into one of the most exciting games I’ve played all year. The Vanishing of Nathan Carter genuinely tricks you into thinking it’s another Everybody’s Gone to The Rapture, but soon, through mini tales, tells a great story about a little boy named Nathan and his fantastic imagination. If you haven’t played Nathan Carter, do so: you will not be disappointed.

7. DMC: Devil May Cry

I’ve loved Devil May Cry ever since I was a little git skiving from school because of a cold. Playing as this awesome man named Dante taking on a bunch of demons from the underworld truly appealed to my teenage sensibilities, and has stuck with me even now when I’m 28. Playing through DMC: Devil May Cry by Ninja Theory, I was annoyed at first by the hair and stylistic changes they had made, but truly admired what they done to the gameplay, and looking back now at the end of the year, I can honestly say it was one of the best games I’ve played in a long time. Ninja Theory should be proud of what they done to this franchise, I know that I am proud of them for allowing DMC a few more years of relevance in this industries darkest, sequel driven, times.

6. Shadow Puppeteer

After seeing the game and speaking with it’s Norwegian creators at EGX 2015, I had to have my hands on a game that truly conjured up images of Tim Burton the second I laid eyes on it. Shadow Puppeteer wasn’t without it’s faults; the platforming felt a bit too glitchy at times, but it was truly stunning to watch, and brilliant to think about it’s puzzle mechanics.

5. Grow Home

I haven’t sat down with a game and been so enthralled by it that I complete it 100% in a long time. Grow Home broke this streak for me when it became available on PS4 recently, to which I was so hooked I genuinely sunk around 8 hours into it before coming away satisfied that I had uncovered everything the game had to give. Whilst Grow Home is no longer free on PS+, I’d still recommend giving the game a go. Every friend I’ve spoken to who’s played the game loves it.

4. Not a Hero

Hilarious and patriotic are not words you hear often in the games industry, but both are perfect descriptors for Roll 7’s crazy and manic shooter Not a Hero. Every press of the trigger had me chuckling to myself as enemies would swear english profanities in my direction. Along with the hilarity, there was also good gameplay, a seemingly repetitive shooter but one that has depth due to how small and complex the levels are. The objectives played out on said levels are also the cream on the cake.

3. Rocket League

I spent over 100 hours playing Rocket League; a feat I thought I no longer had in me due to other responsibilities in my life. But Rocket League properly grabbed me, so much so it was hard to look away. I knew I had it bad when I got home drunk from town one day, barely able to walk, yet still sober enough to think “I need to play Rocket League!”, and so I plonked it on the TV. I done terribly of course, but it still stands as a testament to how fun Rocket League is, and how it easily earns a top spot in my GOTY awards 2015.

2. Life is Strange

It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes Life is Strange so damn special. Maybe it’s the new perspective on a life I never knew, maybe its the lovely hand painted textures and graphics, or maybe, just maybe, it’s because the story had me talking with friends and family in ways a game hasn’t for many years. Life is Strange is a landmark moment in the games industry: it’s still AAA enough to reach a mass audience the indie scene could only dream of, but is also tackling subjects the AAA industry frequently don’t speak about. Topics from Suicide, murder, proper characterisation and many more are truly excellent in (almost) every aspect. Dontnod should be proud of what they’ve produced: it’s stellar.

1. Halo 5

This may come as no surprise to those who know me (I mean, I love the halo franchise so much I’m considering getting a tattoo), but Halo 5 has reinvigorated my love and passion for the franchise. Halo 4 burned me out; it was truly a mediocre game that was capable, but boring. Halo 5 on the other hand is so addictive that I’ve invested countless nights and hundreds of hours into the multiplayer, and that doesn’t even include the campaign that I tirelessly finished on legendary alone. For fans of shooters on consoles, you can do no better at the moment than Halo 5; a truly landmark game that has kept me hooked since its release in October.

So there you go, my top 10 games of 2015. As with the previous 3 years, I’m going to be continuing to complete a game a week, with a weekly article going up as standard. I’ve done 156 articles so far, and I’m not going to stop anytime soon.

So tune in next year (and next week) for my coverage on games I’m completing, along with new opinion pieces, and video articles I’ll soon be producing.

Thank you for your support, and have a fantastic Holiday.

-Dan

23/12/2015
Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void (PC)

Hi all,

I know this is a week or so out of date, but this week I’m posting my review on Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void, a fantastic game that I thoroughly enjoyed and will be coming back to time and time again. As always, the review can be found below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/262188/starcraft-ii-legacy-of-the-void-pc/

Hope you enjoy, and as always, thanks for visiting!

-Dan

18/12/2015
Weekly Gaming: Poncho (PC)

Hi all!

I completely forgot to post this on here when I completed it for VGChartz.com, but here it is! My review for one of my most anticipated indie games: Poncho.

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/261993/poncho-pc/

Just in case you don’t want to read the actual review, you can have a narrated version below:

As always, hope you’re all well, and have a fantastic new year!

-Dan

11/12/2015
Weekly Gaming: Shadow Puppeteer (PC)

Hi all,

For this week I’ve decided to put up my review/article on a game I completed in October called Shadow Puppeteer. The game was fantastic, and I wish the developers all the luck in the world when it releases soon on Wii U.

If you want to read my opinions on the game, click the link below:

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/261362/underrated-hidden-gems-1-shadow-puppeteer/

Hope you’re all well, and thanks for visiting.

-Dan

04/12/2015
Weekly Gaming: Desert Golf (iOS)

I never imagined, in my wildest dreams, that I would be writing about an endless procedurally generated golf game. Even writing that last sentence feels weird. And yet, here I am, writing about a game I’ve become obsessed with.

Like my first sentence alluded to, Desert Golf revolves around plain, 2D course, where holding your finger on the screen, moving it in a direction and releasing whacks the golf ball in a specific direction. The course is procedural, so you’ll get random geometry sticking out here and there, and once you’ve potted you ball, you’ll then proceed to the next stage, which simply encompasses the viewable screen moving to the right a certain distance and pushing your ball out of the hole to try again on the next course.

That’s the entire game.

I’m not even joking. The entire game encompasses what I described above ad nauseam.

There’s no music to speak of, no change of scenery (albeit the colour of the ground slowly changes hue over the 250 holes I’ve so far played), and no change of mechanics.

And yet, despite how little this game has to offer, I’m absolutely hooked.

The simplicity of the levels can be a random mix of difficult shots (where you’ll need to use the curvature of the land to bounce the ball correctly) all the way to the mundane where a simple tap will suffice. It’s addictive to sink one hole after another, all the while your score at the top of the screen is increasing. the score is used as an indicator for how well (or bad) you’re doing, with a twitter icon appearing occasionally to share your progress with friends. I (thankfully) found I was 200 shots below a friend at the 200 mark, a massive achievement for myself, and one that helped in keeping me hooked to the game.

So when will the madness end? Well I recall the Giantbomb crew talking about Desert Golf, and from what I remember, it really does never end, with many giving up after a few thousand holes.

Is Desert Golf worth your time? Yes yes and hell yes. Looks can be deceiving, and for Desert Golf, that works in its favour, with a simple but challenging mechanic taking it far further than I could ever imagine. Time will only tell how far I actually get, but for now, I’m hooked.

4/5

27/11/2015
Weekly Gaming: Rocket League (PS4)

It’s a strange thing to be addicted to a game you never thought was your type or genre. I genuinely can’t explain how it makes me feel. I genuinely do not enjoy sports games, so to get hooked off a game I was sceptical of in the first place is weird, and not something that happens often.

So, how did I come by Rocket League? Well luckily, it was free for Playstation Plus in September, a fantastic offer for a game only just released. For weeks I’ve been listening to the Giant Bombcast talk about how they’re all hooked to the game, so one afternoon, in my downtime, I decided to give the game a go. Booting the game up, I was greeted to a stunningly brilliant rendering of a car on a field, a weird sentence I wouldn’t ever have imagined I’d ever write! (first time for everything today it would seem). Jumping head first into an online match, I soon discovered what all the hype was about when I scored my very first goal.

You see, Rocket League is equal parts luck, and equal parts skill, but when you score a goal or save one from happening, you genuinely feel like the most skillful player there ever was. Having your best (and worst) moments replayed straight after they happened really keeps you interested in the match a hand, even if you’re doing bad. I constantly wanted to better myself, or show off, depending on how I was doing.

Sorry, I’ve gotten ahead of myself. To begin with, an explanation of Rocket League:

Rocket League lets you play a typical game of football as a car. Sounds crazy, but it’s genuinely genius; to the point fans are now campaigning to make it an e-sport. You can choose from 4 different types of match: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, proceeding to try and outscore the opposing teams. It’s that simple.

Each match lasts a maximum of 5 minutes, so the game really is a “pick up and play” type of game, with myself constantly thinking “ah, I have half an hour free before I go to bed, I’ll play a few games of Rocket League before sleep”. Whilst this mentality is certainly awesome, it can cause problems in regards to being just too damn addictive, with every match’s score screen prompting you to instantly press the “find new match” button without thinking.

So how are the controls? Well to put it simply; Delightful. You literally control the car like you would any normal racing game, just this time the mechanics necessitate you controlling it in weird and wonderful ways, with the addition of a jump and nitro boost helping to push your driving skills to the extreme. With traditional racing games you’re trying to stick to a track, constantly making tiny adjustments in order to stay within the course and get the best time. Not so with Rocket League, where you’re constantly trying to change direction within seconds to counter wherever the ball is at that moment. Rocket jumping is hard, but soon you get used to it and are flying just as much as you’re driving, whacking the ball out of the air before over players can get to it.

There isn’t really anything in the sense of music (bar the main menu screen, which, due to the quality of Rocket Leagues servers, you’ll rarely ever spend time on the menu), which isn’t a bad thing considering this is a sports game. Sound effects are as you’d expect (fans cheering, explosions happen when you score a goal etc.) and help to keep the immersion in the match.

So should you get Rocket League for the grand total of £15 if you missed it on playstation plus? HELLS YES. I have easily put in hours and hours of time into the game, getting hooked well past the point of when I should be in bed before work the next morning. The game is addictive, and certainly something I wasn’t expecting to be hooked to considering it’s a genre I don’t generally like.

5/5

20/11/2015